Happy New Year!

We have several new pictures and stories... First a view of the area right outside of our apartment building on January 1st. All the litter you see is the remains of fireworks (some very large, loud fireworks) that were being set off all through the night until 3 or 4 in the morning. We hardly slept at all, but we had some neat fireworks displays right outside our window! Thankfully, Lydia slept through most of it and only woke up once. New Years Eve is the biggest holiday celebrated here.

Here's a close up:

On December 27th we took a walk around some of the historic parts of the city in the afternoon & evening, and we also went inside St. Isaac's Cathedral. Here are some pictures from that walk, and inside the cathedral.


We had another fun day on Thursday. We finally got to see the inside of the Hermitage (in the Winter Palace). Every first Thursday of the month is free admission, so we decided to take advantage of that. We knew it would probably be crowded, since this is the major holiday week for Russians, so we got there right when they opened at 10:30 AM. There was a long line of people already waiting to get in, as you can see in one of the first few pictures of the following slide show. They're standing in a line, right? That kind of surprised me, because it seems like many other places where we would expect a line, Russians form more of a tight cluster around the entrance. Well, as soon as they opened the gates to the palace courtyard, the line completely disintegrated, and everyone rushed forward and mobbed around the doors! It didn't take too long to get in, and once we were inside, the museum didn't seem too crowded, since it is so huge. I mean huge! We were there from 10:30 to about 3:00, and we only saw most of the 2nd floor, and one room on the first floor. And that was even without really taking time to appreciate all the art. Even if you're not into art, it's an amazing place to visit just to see the inside of the palace. The opulence from the time of the tsars is just incredible. The Hermitage's art collection includes over 3 million pieces, and even though the place is so huge, only about 5-10% of it is on display at one time. We'll have to go back another time to see more of it. On our way out, we realized it was good we got there when we did, as there was a long line to get in, reaching all the way through the palace courtyard! You can see that in one of the last pictures of the slideshow. Lydia would have stayed home with her nanny, but she called and said she was sick, so Lydia came with us. She did great, and she brightened the day of the usually stern babushkas who sit in the rooms of the museum to keep their eyes on everyone coming through. One even gave Lydia a piece of candy!


One more slide show to share. This brings us to today. At 10:00 this morning it was -19 Celsius, and by 11:30 it had warmed up to -18! So, we decided to go out and finally try our ice skates and Lydia's sled! It was actually nice to be outside because the sun was shining for the 4th day in a row!!! You don't know how exciting that is until you've lived here for a while! The bundling up is quite a process, but Lydia loves going outside. We went to the park across the street, an she had great fun on the sled. No snow, but we pulled her around on the frozen pond. We couldn't stay out too long though- my toes and fingers started to freeze! I think I need some reindeer skin mittens and boots! I don't think I've ever experienced weather this cold. Now we understand why people kept telling us in December that it wasn't REALLY winter yet.


Here's a picture of Father Frost outside of Smolny Cathedral that we saw the other day. I guess he rides a boat in St. Pete!